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How Mitt Romney silenced the echo chamber

And from the campaign’s perspective, the outreach has been successful. Even before Romney’s recent surge in the polls, his team had managed to tamp down some of the public griping among the Washington chattering class about the nominee — and insiders credit Kaufman.

The effort kicked off with a cocktail party at Kaufman’s Capitol Hill home, where he invited a small group of influential Republicans for drinks, catered food and lively conversation. Attendees included Rob Jesmer, executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee; Josh Holmes, a top aide to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell; Kyle Simmons, McConnell’s former chief of staff; GOP operative Ron Bonjean; and Bill Greener.

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Kaufman and Jones then created small call lists of 15 to 20 people that top Romney campaign officials would brief regularly on the state of the race.

Kaufman and Jones broke the consultant class loosely into Gen X and baby boomers, association executives and former elected leaders dubbed internally as the “elites.” The calls are organized as more of a conversation with open lines so that anybody can interrupt or ask questions. The idea was to have a genuine give-and-take on the state of the race, Romney’s strategy and where the campaign was putting its time and resources.

The Romney campaign also has a daily “surrogate call,” which involves a much broader group of Republican operatives and activists. In those sessions, Romney aides dictate talking points that are to be used to push the candidate’s message on TV, newspapers and online.

But for the “elites,” the information is of far higher level and involves far less spin and more hard facts.

Virginia delegate Barbara Comstock; longtime Washington power brokers Charlie Black and Don Fierce; former Freedom’s Watch President Brad Blakeman; and political consultant Frank Donatelli are among those that have been on the “elite” calls, sources said.

Jeff Larson, chief of staff at the RNC, and Romney communications director Gail Gitcho have joined Jones, Newhouse and Kaufman on the calls to give strategy updates on the race.

One senior Republican who has been part of the regular briefings said they provide “message discipline because not everybody knows what to say. If you leave them alone, people have their own interpretation and might not know everything that is going on.”

Additionally, the Republican said the campaign has been candid and the tightly controlled audience allows for questions on sensitive subjects, like the overnight polling numbers in Ohio and other key presidential battlegrounds.

A source close to the Romney campaign with knowledge of the calls said that the purpose is to be frank, give out good information and create a conversation for honest feedback.

“This is an effort to make sure the folks that are in Washington and by definition a little more disconnected from the headquarters in Boston, a chance that they had fresh information, understood what was going on and get involved and energized,” the source said. “The key to this business is to get outside the bubble, if you will. Most of these folks have their own networks around the country.”

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Readers' Comments (357)

I know what was on the call. "We're going to LIE, LIE, LIE like there's no tomorrow, don't worry folks. We're going to flip and flop and shake the etch-a-sketch to adopt nearly every policy that Obama has, just with a white guy instead of a black guy. It's that simple. We're going to make Romney the safe, clean version of Obama on everything but health care reform since we won the lying message war on that already."

I used to think the President of the United States was a lying, unpatriotic, b*llsh*tter but now I believe he is a sick ****ing sh*t who resembles the scum of the earth in every sense. I have just seen a 2 minute ad put out by an advertising agency working on the scumbucket's behalf where children are beating into submission to sing a song about the "Future" under a Romney administration. You liberals loons are simply trash. You have no human sensibility. You force a group of youth to sing like they were children of hitler forced to repeat words that are atrocious. And all this so that the lying unpatriotic scumbucket President of the United States Barack Hussein Obama is thought of as what a Pedophile?

What will be next when you lose? Will you riot in the streets because your guy got his ass handed to him royally. You people are scum pure and simple.

By election day, we'll most likely see an "epic fail," and the media will say it was "close until the very end."

Of course, the EXCUSE they'll use is racism.........

God forbid they admit that yet another leftist, who they tried to sell as a centrist, was shown the door again by the American people.

And the Party of the American Left, who even threw their moderate VP choice out along with their "Blue Dogs," will go looking for ANOTHER far left fool they can try and pawn off on the American people with a lot of empty rhetoric to fill an empty suit.

I know what was on the call. "We're going to LIE, LIE, LIE like there's no tomorrow, don't worry folks. We're going to flip and flop and shake the etch-a-sketch to adopt nearly every policy that Obama has, just with a white guy instead of a black guy. It's that simple. We're going to make Romney the safe, clean version of Obama on everything but health care reform since we won the lying message war on that already."

Ron Kaufman looks like a real winner. Is he the one who convinced Romney not to take down his endorsement of Richard Murdoch's rape statement?

I've been thinking about the reams of newsprint spent on the Jerry Sandusky trial and the damage that Catholic priests have done to boys. Isn't it strange that we all agree how horrible that is but when it comes to women, we get remarks like "some women are so easy to rape", "God intended it" and questions about "legitimate rape". Why is that?

Are women so gullible that they don't realize Ryan's record on abortion (no exceptions) and don't they realize that he and Pro-Life Romney will appoint the next Supreme Court Justices? How funny that Republicans will do anything for you BEFORE you're born, but afterwards YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN.

Start practicing PRESIDENT ROMNEY! It looks like Obama would even lose MN to Romney. Millions of American people are not happy being UNEMPLOYED or on FOOD STAMP; they want to work, a good paying jobs, NOT low minimum wage and short hours.

NOT all minorities are suppoting Obama, I'm a minority, I do NOT support Obama, he's a loathesome creature DESERVED to be DEFEATED by Mitt Romney.

I was a Hillary Clinton supporter in 2008, I donated and campaigned for her; but Obama and the DNC stole the nomination from her.

I've made a promise to myself, when November 6, 2012 arrives, I will NEVER vote for a single Democrat candidate. My absentee ballot was mailed last week.

Millions of us Hillary Clinton supporters will NEVER vote for Obama this election.

The Democrat use us women like a Piñata, we are viable to them during election season, using scare tactics, attacking our ovaries and uterus. When election is over they shove us back in the broom closet and expect us to shut up our mouth and do what they say.

There are many Republican Presidents, my right to choice was/is not limited. I can have abortion anytime I want, I can be pregnant anytime I want; but Democrats? They send you to plan parenthood to get an abortion especially if you're a MINORITY like me.

Say goodbye to Obama, this horrid man, a sorry excuse for a human being who caused tghe death of four Americans in Benghazi will be VOTED OUT OF OFFICE!

I'd be one of millions of Hillary Clinton supporters who'll be cheering when he's DEFEATED on November 6.

I remember what JAY-Z (husband of Beyonce) said during his opening act for Obama in North Carolina; " Bro before ho;" Long legged McDaddy will be VOTED OUT OF OFFICE, he can continue pimping all these Hollywood actors and actresses at his OWN expense.

I think you have it confused - that's what the White House is saying - and they top it off with people are too stupid to question them. and expect any accountability.

Well polls are just that we have to wait for the actual election. But even if by chance Obama gets reelected - he won't be there long with this Benghazi. So hope you probably are giving your vote to Biden

Wow I think Obama's campaign has been one of the most negative campaigns in history and I think he has targeted the lowest denominator of his party. But not as upset about as you are!

What does bother me though is the cover up about Benghazi that they have the nerve to talk about Romney lying with the lies coming out of the White House is just beyond believe. The problem is though the media lets them get away with it.

I have to admit, Romney's ability to silence all critics in the Republican Party has been so successful that it makes it look like no one is left in the Republican Party that tells the truth anymore or cares about principles or reducing the deficit or fiscal responsibility or anything else. When Romney does a complete flip on an issue, Republicans from all corners of the party act as though they don't notice a change. When his numbers threaten to add trillions to the deficit and debt, fiscal conservatives never emit a peep of protest. When Romney does a 180-degree turn from saber rattler to hippie peacenik, neocons are quiet as the grave. Romney has been and is the biggest flip-flopping chronic liar and panderer ever to run as the nominee of a major party in modern times, yet no tea partier, no conservatives, no fiscal hawks, no neocons, no Republican seems to mind. The Republicans have become a people without integrity. They have been reduced to red vs. blue (and red stands for nothing but possibly an electoral victory).

I'll let the Republicans in on a secret. If the Democrats get out all supporters of President Obama, he will win -- even if Republicans get out all their supporters. Romney badly lost the last two debates and that pro-Obama influence will see our president win going away. So those Republicans or conservatives or Christians that want to preserve any tattered shreds of their integrity and dignity and political (or religious) identity can stay home in protest on Election Day or vote secretly for the more fiscally conservative, responsible, trustworthy candidate and the only Christian candidate, President Obama.

Seems to me that fussing and railing over polls at this point is simply "busy work".

Something to keep anxious nerves busy and occupied. If you are not interested in working yourself up over a .03% movement in the polling data, right now, to me, the most sensible thing to do is to stay still and await the results.

Going out to vote is a good idea too. Carrying your friends and neighbors to vote and participating in your candidate's get out the vote program in your neighborhood are also good ways to pass the time .. and you are actively doing something to help the situation and at the same time calming your nerves.

I know that ardent leftists and Obama's most loyal supporters were detached from reality before, but it is just so f***ing hilarious how they're spinning even further out of control. They are absolutely beside themselves that the fictional persona they tried to create--Mitt Romney as an out-of-touch plutocrat who will say whatever he thinks voters want to hear in order to win an election--has been busted to smithereens by reality. Voters got to see the real Mitt Romney in that first debate, and ever since then, the Obama campaign and their media surrogates have been struggling to find a winning narrative. Yes, the Romney surge began before that first debate, but I think we may look at October 3rd as the pivotal date in this election cycle, much like September 15, 2008 was last time. I myself had questioned Romney's strategy, but I think it's now clear he's going to win, and that will be good for America.

Millions of us Hillary Clinton supporters will NEVER vote for Obama this election. The Democrat use us women like a Piñata, we are viable to them during election season, using scare tactics, attacking our ovaries and uterus. When election is over they shove us back in the broom closet and expect us

They do the same thing with all minorities.........

They come up with an issue like black church burnings, which statistically never happened, confederate flags over state capitals, put there by Democrats, "disenfranchisement" cases, which aren't even worthy to go to court, evidently, or try to turn a hispanic kid white, so that they can yell "racism."

Just to try and drive black Americans to the polls............

After election day?

They tell those same people, "Go to the back of the bus. We need the people who came across the border who aren't even citizens to have those jobs you're desperate for.........."

Then they tell hispanic Americans, "Sure. we'll pass legislation to help you, AFTER the next election.............."

"What will be next when you lose? Will you riot in the streets because your guy got his ass handed to him royally."

We put up with 8 YEARS of Republican nonsense without violence after you managed to "win" in 2000. And, we cooperated... we decided to work WITH the President on everything we could contrary to what Republicans chose to do in 2009 onward. Can we count on the same from you?